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Show THE MISERABLE QUIBBLERS. v H We are told that the Commissioners of the H great commercial nations are favorable to a ratio H of 32 to 1 for silver. How did tho wise body come H to fix upon that? There is no silver surplus. Bng- H land wants several millions of ounces to coin for H India. Every ounce, coined on tho continent of H Europe passes for real money at a ratio of 15 H to 1, and every country, save possibly France, H wants more. Suppose they wore to agree upon H 24 to 1, do any of them thirik sliver bullion would H not be worth that price next morning? If paper money has no value except through Its stamp and H it passes at par, where comes in tho great fear H about silver? It never fell in value until-the na- H tions repudiated it and then when it began to fall H It dragged every article of commerce, every form H of property except interest-bearing notes and H bonds down with it "in the same ratio that silver I fell, that is, gold was appreciated until when sll I ver had fallen 50 por cent It was found that it re- I quired twice as many pounds of wheat or corn or H cotton to buy a dollar as it required before the I nations, following tho advice of those who hold I most of tho world's interest bearing securities, re- I pudlated half the real money of tho world. Are these commissioners afraid to acknowledge at this late day that the demonetization of silver waff I a robbery more gigantic than was over before per- I , petrated upon tho world's poor, and that great I middle class that with their little money and their I work combined, aro trying to live? Most of the I bonds aro paid off, principal and interest, gold Is I 'increasing vastly faster than silver, still with all I that can be obtained of both metals, tho nationu I are forced to issue vapt amounts of paper money I in order to carry on their halting business, paper I money with nothing behind it except faith in tho I power of the respective governments to redeem M I It is just thirty years since silver was demon I etized, since the nations stamped upon it, declar- I ing it was so plenty that it had ceased to be a pre- I clous metal and was a mere commodity like beans I and whisky; but still there is no surplus and China I alone would like to buy an amount equal to what I all the mines of the world have supplied in those I thirty years, and that would give her but about , I $4.80 per capita for her people while ours aro I clamoring for more money though our per capita I is $27. Is it not time to cease hiding in tho closet I or under tho bed when this pllver ghost is con- I jured up. There Is not a man on that commls- I sion, not one from the United States or Great I Britain or France or Germany or Russia who does I not know that with the ratio fixed at twenty-four, I or even sixteen, silver to one of gold, the corarao- I dity price of silver bullion would follow the mon- I oy price and.be the. same all around the world I withfn' twenty-foiir hours, that Is, . wherovor tho I telegraph reaches. ......" Why then do they fix upon 32to 1? Is it to I onable certain combines to purchase the silver pro- I duct of the next two or three years and then to I reduce tho ratio one-half that their purchases may I double in value? It surely has that look. Why do I I w . I 1 - - i H 1 1 thoy not sound the alarm and point out the men- if i ; ; 'I f i ace which hen's eggs are to tho world? Last year J J ' .! mining in the United States was prosperous, but Kg i the whole amount of silver mined, if coined at Rf ;f i J j j the old 1G to 1 ratio would not pay for the hen'd Wm jj; i eggs consumed last year by the pe&ple of this Rd- H i lit public. Why is the American hen permitted to HI hi ply her nefarious trade withort, censure while a H , ' f , p perpetual embargo upon and robbery of the Am- H! s k' erican miner is called "necessary statesmanship?" |